Satyam forms BI alliance with Oracle
Indian IT services company Satyam will integrate its business intelligence (BI) framework with the Oracle platform in a new alliance.
Satyam said Tuesday that its iDecisions business intelligence deployment framework will be ported to Oracle's Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition. Both companies said the combined BI platform will be available for multiple industry verticals, including banking, telecommunications and insurance.
Venkat Narayanan, vice president of knowledge dynamics at Satyam's global BI practice, said the alliance is aimed at boosting the adoption of BI tools in the Asia-Pacific region. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
"Many BI implementations have not been successful in providing return on investment," Narayanan said in an interview with ZDNet Asia. "The common reason for that is because many businesses are not familiar with how BI is used to achieve business objectives."
Satyam's iDecisions framework is a set of best practices to guide companies in implementing BI software. With the framework being included in Oracle's platform, Narayanan said, businesses in the Asia-Pacific region can achieve more effective BI deployment at lower costs with a single technology stack from Oracle.
For example, he explained, product managers can quickly profile their customers and engage in cross-selling through a combination of Oracle's data mining and dashboard capabilities, and the iDecision BI framework.
Enterprise applications vendors such as Oracle and SAP have been integrating BI tools within their software to help businesses gain deeper insight into heaps of data residing in IT systems. In April this year, Oracle completed its US$3.3 billion acquisition of Hyperion, a BI and enterprise performance management software company.
The heightened focus on BI among software vendors does not come as a surprise. In the Asia-Pacific region, the market for BI and business process management software is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.9 percent, reaching US$670 million by 2010, according to IDC.
With Hyperion already acquired by Oracle, Narayanan said, Satyam will extend its iDecision framework to include Hyperion's key business process management capabilities such budgeting and planning. "This means we'll have predefined budget and planning templates for various industries and managerial roles."
In a separate media briefing Tuesday, IBM and Business Objects extended their partnership, which was announced in October 2006, to the Asia-Pacific region.
In a move to drive BI adoption in the region, both companies will develop a portfolio of IBM hardware and software platforms that integrate Business Objects' BI tools. The portfolio will target specific vertical industries such as healthcare, retail banking and government.
According to Jay Ennesser, IBM's vice president for cross industry alliances, Big Blue and Business Objects have more than 1,000 joint customers in the Asia-Pacific region. IBM expects to generate sales of US$150 million over three years from the extended partnership with Business Objects, Ennesser said.
Through the partnership, enterprise customers can expect to see Business Objects' BI tools in IBM's software portfolio including the DB2 database, Tivoli management software and the Rational software development platform, according to Shobhit Dubey, director of global alliances at Business Objects Asia-Pacific and Japan.
Dubey said the partnership will also allow both companies to reach out to medium-sized businesses with IBM's C1000 and C3000 data warehouse appliances featuring Business Object's Crystal Reports and Crystal Decisions BI software. Both appliances will also come with one-year support services, provided by IBM's global delivery center in India.